Virgin Komi Forests, Russia

VIRGIN KOMI FORESTS (Russia)

This forest in the Northern Ural Mountains of the Komi Republic, Russia, is at over 12,600 square miles the largest virgin forest remaining in Europe.  Trees include conifers, aspens, and birches; mammals include reindeer, sables, minks, and hares. The area has peat bogs, rivers, and natural lakes, but logging--and gold deposits in its northern reaches--present threats to its protection.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Novodevichy Convent, Moscow, Russia

NOVODEVICHY CONVENT, MOSCOW, RUSSIA

Novodevichy Convent, perhaps the best-known in Moscow, was built in the 16th-17th centuries and remains largely intact. Part of a chain of monastic assemblages used for the defense of the city, it was closely linked to the Moscow Kremlin and used by women of the Tsar's family and the aristocracy. It houses rich interiors with an important collection of paintings and artifacts.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

The Churches of Pskov, Russia

THE CHURCHES OF PSKOV (Russia)

The NW Russian city of Pskov--just 12 miles from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River--is renowned for its many dozens of churches built in a style known as the "Pskov School": cube-like main structures with domes, porches, and belfries. Some elements date to the 12th century; the style reached its peak in the 15th-16th.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

The Struve Geodetic Arc, Norway to the Ukraine

THE STRUVE GEODETIC ARC (Norway to the Ukraine - 10 countries)

From 1816 to 1855 German-born Russian scientist Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve triangulated the locations of 265 main station points along a single meridian of the earth from Norway to the Ukraine. Stretching through 10 countries for over 1,750 miles, this act of international scientific cooperation helped establish the exact size and shape of the earth. 

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)